The Wars of the Jews (or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, or as it usually appears in modern English translations, The Jewish War - original title: Phlauiou Iôsêpou historia Ioudaïkou polemou pros Rhômaious bibliona) is a book written in Greek by the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus.

It is a description of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in the First Jewish-Roman War in AD 70. The book was written about 75, originally in Josephus's "paternal tongue", probably Aramaic, though this version has not survived. It was later translated into Greek, probably under the supervision of Josephus himself.

Although Josephus' account is one of the few sources of knowledge that we have of this war (the Talmud in gittin has an account of the war as well) the neutrality and integrity behind this writing has been questioned.

The text also survives in an Old Slavonic version.

References

• The Jewish War: Revised Edition ISBN 0-14-044420-3.
• H. Leeming and K. Leeming, Josephus' "Jewish War" and Its Slavonic Version: A Synoptic Comparison Ancient Judaism & Early Christianity, Brill (1999), ISBN 978-9004114388.

External links

• Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era > Flavius Josephus The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• The Wars of the Jews at the Perseus Project.
• Original Greek edition
• Notes on the Old Slavonic Josephus